Kentucky freshman forward Nerlens Noel (3) reacts to a call during the Wildcats' home loss to Baylor that snapped a long win streak Saturday. / Mark Zerof, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

John Calipari warned reporters and fans all summer not to expect too much from his young Wildcats this season.

He said this freshman class is not the same group as Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Co., who won a national championship. He knew he didn't have many veterans on his roster. He thought voters were crazy to put Kentucky in the top five â?? as the Wildcats were ranked No. 3 in both the preseason USA TODAY Sports coaches poll and the preseason Associated Press poll.

Now, it's clear Calipari was right.

Kentucky is 4-3, including back-to-back losses last week to two unranked teams (Notre Dame and Baylor). The Wildcats dropped from eighth to No. 19 in the latest USA TODAY Sports coaches poll and have fallen out of the AP poll. Their drop in the AP poll from eighth to out is the largest fall for a team in one week since the poll expanded to 25 teams in 1990.

And Kentucky's loss to Baylor on Saturday â?? the Bears' first nonconference road win over a ranked opponent in program history â?? snapped a 55-game home winning streak at Rupp Arena.

"We've just got a ways to go with this team, and I think everybody now understands, you know, that you don't just put a collection of players together," Calipari said Saturday. "I don't have a magic wand, folks."

Calipari's recruit-and-reload strategy isn't working as well â?? and as quickly â?? as it has in recent seasons, and there are a couple of reasons why. Most glaringly, this team's youth and weak point guard play.

Sophomore Kyle Wiltjer is the team's de facto veteran after averaging 11.6 minutes per game last season while no other returning player averaged more than three. Entering last season, the highly touted freshmen of Davis' class were surrounded by senior Darius Miller and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb â?? who had Final Four experience.

Without upperclassmen, these Cats have struggled to find an on-court leader. North Carolina State transfer Ryan Harrow has spent little time on the court at point guard because of a mysterious flu-like illness and Calipari's interest in Archie Goodwin trying the point. In his first start of the season, Harrow went 1-for-9 from the field and 0-for-2 from three with two assists against Baylor. He has scored just four points all season.

ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla said he wasn't surprised about Harrow's struggles, considering the high-pressure environment and because Harrow isn't quite as talented as some of Calipari's other recent NBA-caliber point guards, such as Marquis Teague and Brandon Knight.

"The biggest area of concern is the overall lack of depth in the backcourt and what is going to be an up-and-down year at the point guard position," Fraschilla said Monday. "They have enough pieces on the front line to be a top-five team. But like in football, if you don't have an all-conference-level quarterback, you're going to struggle if you don't have an all-conference-level point guard. To this point, they don't."

Fraschilla said he's "not terribly surprised" that the Wildcats are 4-3 on the season, but that Kentucky fans shouldn't be alarmed.

"I don't see Final Four in this particular team's future, but this is a momentarily blip because the next recruiting class coming in may be John's best ever," Fraschilla said. "I'm sure he's not going to let the program take a step back."

Regarding this year's class of Nerlens Noel, Alex Poythress, Willie Cauley-Stein and Goodwin, Fraschilla suggested that people may have expected too much out of the group without the support of veteran players. Or maybe the 2012 recruiting class on the whole wasn't as strong as expected, considering other top players like UCLA's star freshmen Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson have been less than impressive, too.

"This (Kentucky class) was a very good class by most people's standards, but it's not the kind of class that was going to allow Kentucky to rebuild to the point that they were going to automatically compete for a national title," Fraschilla said. "I would have been more surprised had they been undefeated at this point."